York and Sandown

With 18 group races coming up at Royal Ascot next week, it is obvious that there are no races of this category at today´s 9 (!!) meetings, but there is plenty of good racing, with some very competitive and valuable handicaps as the main events.

York stages ist very popular charity meeting and the 6 furlongs handicap for 3yo´s at 16.50 CET is the most valuable race of the day. With 20 runners, some of them totally unexposed, this is extremely difficult and luck in running could be decisive. On the whole we feel that high numbers have a slight advantage here and we therefore choose Gamesome (Olly Stevens/ Harry Bentley), drawn 16; he had no chance in a listed race last time, but looked good when winning his maiden last year and this race has apparently been his target ever since. Of the many dangers, Danzeno (Mike Appleby/ Andrew Mullen) will probably start favourite after winning his last 2 races, but he is now not so well handicapped; we are more interested in the same trainer and jockey and Cordite, the only 3yo in the field for the listed mile race at 16.15. This was the horse that caused all the trouble in the German 2,000 Guineas when running straight ahead at the bend into the straight. He still did well to finish fifth and could well run a big race here at a good price. The card opens with the Queen Mothers Cup at 15.05, one of the best races of the year for lady riders and we hope that Saptapadi (Brian Ellison/ Katie Walsh) can do the business; his only win came 4 years ago but he has been running in better races and seems very nicely handicapped here.despite top weight. Fury (William Haggas/ Frankie Dettori) is another horse that seldom wins, but he has also been given a chance by the handicapper in the 9 furlongs race at 15.40; he ran well enough at Epsom last week to give him good prospects here.

Despite the much beztter porize-money at York, leading jockeys Ryan Moore, Richard Hughes, William Buick and Jamie Spencer are all at Sandown, where we like Spencer´s chances on John Best´s Lupo d´Oro at 16.30; he won the race last year and as he has not scored since, runs now off a more lenient rating. Ryan Moore can start off with a double for Sir Michael Stoute on Gothic at 14.50 and Enobled half an hour later, though both are very open, while the main feature is a 5 furlongs listed race for 3yo´s. David O´Meara is in great form and has runners at several meetings today, but sends his main jockey Danny Tudhope to partner G Force here, who was most impressive last time at York; however this looks much tougher and his outside draw could be a problem, so we prefer Extortionist (Olly Stevens/ Jim Crowley), who has been running in smart company and won at Royal Ascot last year.

There isd also a highly interesting and valuable handicap at Chester, over 10 furlongs at 17.15. The two most interesring runners here are the top-weights Energia Davos (Marco Botti/ Marc Monaghan) and Tahira (John Quinn/ Philipp Makiin), both of whom have only ever run once in the U.K. The latter was trained by Uwe Stech last year and had smart form in German sales races. while the former has been all over the place and actually ran in the Grosser Preis von Baden two years ago. However we suspect that they may have other targets and prefer some of the lightweights, notably Running Deer (Eve Johnson Houghton/ Louis Steward) and Las Verglas Star (Richard Fahey/ Pat Mathers), who have both run well this year over this CD. Another ex-German running here is Magic Art (Botti/ Monaghan) at 16.50; this half-sister to Magic Artist won the Austrian Derby last year and could be well handicapped here.

Finally - a handicap certainty! Of course there is no such thing, but ex-German Lysino (Keith Dalgleish/ Tom Eaves) must be close in the 1 1/2 mile handicap at Musselburgh at 15.00. He ran without much success over hurdles during the winter, but on his first start for his new trainer won very easily at Ayr on Monday and still seems thrown in on a mark of 71; he was at one time Peter Schiergen´s Derby horse! He will however be at odds-on today, so is not necessarily a good betting proposition.